OHPL
A 2017 chemometrics method frozen in place, visited only when CRAN changes its documentation rules.
Comparison · Analytics
spatstat vs tidypolars
A side-by-side editorial comparison of spatstat and tidypolars — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
spatstat vs tidypolars: at a glance
What is spatstat?
The spatstat umbrella package, now mostly a pointer to the sub-packages doing the work
spatstat is the front package of a family that was split into specialised components — spatstat.geom, spatstat.random, spatstat.model, spatstat.explore, spatstat.univar and spatstat.sparse. Its own release notes reflect that: entries in this window are largely announcements of where the real changes landed, plus documentation and cross-reference maintenance. The codebase it fronts passed 200,000 lines as of 3.5-1.
What is tidypolars?
tidypolars is grinding toward complete dplyr coverage, one supported function at a time
tidypolars lets you write dplyr and tidyr syntax against Polars DataFrames and LazyFrames. Its releases follow a fixed shape: raise the required polars version, add a handful of newly supported R functions and arguments, fix places where behaviour diverges from dplyr. Recent additions run from %notin% and as.integer() to .before/.after in mutate() and time zone handling in datetime parsing. Cadence is roughly every six to ten weeks and has not varied.
spatstat vs tidypolars: editorial side-by-side
spatstat
0.0ANALYTICS
The spatstat umbrella package, now mostly a pointer to the sub-packages doing the work
◆ Current state
spatstat is the front package of a family that was split into specialised components — spatstat.geom, spatstat.random, spatstat.model, spatstat.explore, spatstat.univar and spatstat.sparse. Its own release notes reflect that: entries in this window are largely announcements of where the real changes landed, plus documentation and cross-reference maintenance. The codebase it fronts passed 200,000 lines as of 3.5-1.
◆ Where it's heading
The split is effectively complete and the umbrella's role has settled into coordination — tracking version dependencies across sub-packages and pointing users to them. The family has kept subdividing over this period, with spatstat.univar joining in 3.1-0. The one substantive user-facing addition here is documentation infrastructure: 3.3-0 added the ability to list the history of changes to a specific function, which is a navigational answer to a codebase now spread across many packages.
◆ Prediction
Expect this package's notes to continue summarising sub-package activity rather than carrying features of its own, since every release in this window does exactly that. Read spatstat.geom, spatstat.random and spatstat.model for the substance.
tidypolars
0.0ANALYTICS
tidypolars is grinding toward complete dplyr coverage, one supported function at a time
◆ Current state
tidypolars lets you write dplyr and tidyr syntax against Polars DataFrames and LazyFrames. Its releases follow a fixed shape: raise the required polars version, add a handful of newly supported R functions and arguments, fix places where behaviour diverges from dplyr. Recent additions run from %notin% and as.integer() to .before/.after in mutate() and time zone handling in datetime parsing. Cadence is roughly every six to ten weeks and has not varied.
◆ Where it's heading
Coverage is the whole strategy, and the target has been widening from dplyr into tidyr — unnest_longer_polars(), separate_longer_delim_polars() and separate_longer_position_polars() bring list-column and string-splitting verbs that have no Polars-idiomatic equivalent in the tidyverse dialect. The other consistent thread is fidelity: distinct() dropping unselected columns, summarize() dropping the last group, relocate() honouring tidy-select helpers, NULL in mutate() behaving as dplyr does. Each of these is a small breaking change made to match the reference rather than to differ from it.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of tracking the polars floor upward every release and following tidyverse changes closely — .by in fill() arrived when tidyr 1.3.2 shipped it — suggests the next releases continue mirroring new dplyr and tidyr arguments rather than adding a distinct capability.
Alternatives to spatstat and tidypolars
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either spatstat or tidypolars.
fastplyr
A fast dplyr stand-in that keeps finding new places to skip work entirely.
trias
Belgium's invasive-species indicator toolkit is in steady refinement, one plotting edge case at a time.
icesSAG
The ICES stock assessment client took upload away in 2024 and spent two years giving it back.
dggridR
A discrete global grid generator grew cell traversal and became a usable spatial index.
vegan
Community ecology's standard toolkit is retiring the functions a generation of scripts was built on.
See all spatstat alternatives → · See all tidypolars alternatives →
Recent activity from spatstat and tidypolars
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.19.0
- 2mo agospatstatSub-package updates across sparse, univar and random
- 4mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.18.0
- 6mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.17.0
- 6mo agospatstatspatstat passes 200,000 lines of code
- 6mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.16.0
- 9mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.15.1
- 9mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.15.0
- 10mo agospatstatNew vignette documenting NA spatial objects
- 1y agospatstatPer-function change history now listable
- 2y agospatstatspatstat.univar joins the package family
- 3y agospatstatSub-package cross-references and docs corrected
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between spatstat and tidypolars?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. spatstat and tidypolars are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is spatstat better than tidypolars?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. spatstat and tidypolars are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to spatstat?
Top spatstat alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "spatstat alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/spatstat-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to tidypolars?
Top tidypolars alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "tidypolars alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tidypolars for the full list with editorial commentary on each.